Say what you want about the late fall and early winter in Toronto - if you like variety in your weather, you've come to the right place. Over the past month, we've seen torrential rains, mountains of snow, ice on the roads and sidewalks, bitter wind chills, record breaking high temperatures and even a tornado warning. And now to cap it off, comes a day filled with some ill winds that's blown parts of the GTA away.
The disturbance was ushered in by a cold front that wiped out readings that had people walking around without coats. In its place came an all-day wind warning, with gusts that reached 107 kilometres an hour at one point at Pearson International Airport. That's just a few clicks below what's considered hurricane strength and it helped delay dozens of flights.
Belleville registered a wind gust of 133 kilometres an hour, enough to cause major damage.
Most of the non-stop breezes in town came in at around 60-90 km/h, and it created havoc all over the city. A fallen tree branch crunched a car near
Bathurst and College Sts. Owner Alexandra North didn't even know it had happened.
"Our tenant yelled up and said, "Hello! I think something happened to your car." And so we walked outside and this is what we found," she laughs. But there was nothing funny about what happened when this bough broke. Her four-year-old Volvo is a virtual write-off. "I'm kind of relieved no one's hurt," she reveals. "But I can't believe that this branch did this much damage. Our car is done."
She's trying to take it in good humour as she contemplates how she's going to get around while she's waiting for her vehicle to be replaced. "TTC," she chuckles. "We live downtown. It's not that big of a deal. And they gave us a rental!"
But she wasn't the only one left aghast by a gust. Maria Carreira awoke to find the railing on her
Bloor and St. Clarens house destroyed by a fallen tree. "I heard a big bang on my bedroom window, and I said, 'Oh God,'" she remembers.
Lower Sherbourne St. was closed off at The Esplanade for a time after the winds blew construction materials off the roof of a building and onto the street below.
Outside of town, things were even worse. Workers at a similar site in Whitby will have to start all over again, after the wicked winds acted more like the wicked wolf and blew down a house. The almost finished structure was ready for its brick when Mother Nature came howling in.
"We went to bed, it was up," muses Julie Oakes. "We got up and it was down. I guess it tells just how strong nature can be sometimes."
At Buttonville Airport, two planes were turned over by the stiff breezes.
And while some 3,000 residents in the city were without power as crews struggled to repair lines toppled by the trees, that was a small number compared to other places in the province. Hydro One is warning some customers in remote areas their
electricity may not be back until later this week.
Things will finally die down by Thursday, which promises to be less windy, but colder. Still, the emergencies weren't gone with the wind. Later in the evening, a falling sign 58 storeys above Bay St. forced the closure of the road in the financial district. For more on that,
click here.
How strong are the winds?
Check the long range forecast